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Jason,
although I understand the reason for folding Concentration into Spellcraft, I might have preferred to keep them as separate skills. I've also been toying it with the idea of introducing a new skill into the system: Discipline. It would work just like Concentration in 3E, but you could also use it (with an opposed skill check) to resist Diplomacy and Intimidate attempts, as well as torture. Some Psionic skills (e.g. Autohypnosis) could also be folded into it to make more "appealing", and I've even though of eliminating the Endurance Feat from the game to replace its function with this skill. However, it may end up being too "broad" and some of the functions (skill uses) should be derived from CON while others from WIS. However:
Another idea I've been playing with is to organize skills under "categories" the way that Profession, Knowledge, Perform and Craft work now (and, apparently, Perception too). This would mean that the skill system would work pretty much the say way it worked in 3.5 (i.e. without several "uses" in a "superskill") via these "subskills". That way your fighter might have Discipline (Endurance) as a class skill while a monk might have Discipline (All) and a wizard, in turn, Discipline (Concentration). Along the same lines, a rogue might have, as class skills, Perception (All), a paladin Perception (Sight, Listen, and Insight) and a fighter Perception (Sight and Listen). That would certainly add more "complexity" to the skill system, but also add more variance and depth between class skill lists. Also, each "subskill" could have a different ability score it is based on, so that Handle Animal (Ride) could be a DEX-based skill while Handle Animal (Animal Training) might be a WIS-based skill. I think I'm going to test how this system would work in PF anyway...
Any thoughts, people?
If Concentration (which was stupid to be merged with spellcraft!) would get only one fixed Ability it should be WIS.
Wisdom is the main messurement for Willpower, and concentration is nothing else, or better said: nothing is more important for concentration then a strong will that doesn't get distracted that easily.
Hope you know what I mean.
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I am definitely in the "keep Concentration separate from Spellcraft" camp, if only for one reason - psionics (which some people do include in their games, and is important to consider for the backwards compatability angle). Sure, you could roll the benefits of concentration into psicraft just as easily as its been rolled into spellcraft, but what happens with multi-class spellcaster/psions? They have different skill levels of ability at concentration, depending on the task? That just seems odd.
If there is ANYTHING that could be ruled into spellcraft, it would be Use Magic Device.
But then again, Rogues where able to analyse magic, and that's not the way to go, right?
Knowledge (Arcana) doesn't really fit there too, because any scholar could collect knowledge about magic without being able to cast it
and I can think of many young sorcerers who are strong in the force... sorry, magic and have actually NO idea about the history and creatures of magic.
On the other hand, I would grant Wizards the Knowledge (Arcana) skill for free.
Something like a class ability increasing in level.
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Use Magic Device is the skill for people who don't actually cast spells, and therefore have to wave magic items around and scream "WORK DAMN YOU!" Wizards don't have to do that. That's why it's a separate skill.
While this is true to some extent - Use Magic Device allows even wizards to do things that they ordinarily cant: such as cast spells not on their class list, or usurp a race or alignment restriction on a magic item.
That being said - i think UMD needs to be its own skill, too; I was just commenting that even wizards could benefit from having it.
Robert
Concentration is a valuable skill for all spellcasters, not just wizards. Druids, clerics, sorcerers, and even bards need concentration in order to cast spells through taking damage or while threatened by an opponent. Combining spellcraft and concentration aids wizards (who tend to have higher Int than Con) while hurting every single other spellcaster out there (who tend to have higher Con than Int).
So my suggestion is do one of two things. Either:
1) keep concentration as a Con based skill, or
2) make the new spellcraft skill based off your primary casting stat, whatever it is. If it's a matter of mental concentration instead of physical hardiness, there's no reason book-smarts (Int) would make you better at it than mental discipline (Wis) or inherent ability (Cha).
It's important to take into consideration how changing a stat modifier to a skill affects all classes, not just the ones that benefit from the change. The skill system already favors wizards (tons of Int = tons of skills and most of their skills are Int-based), so there is no reason to make it even easier on them as opposed to every other spellcaster in the game.
I think this hits the nail on the head.
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As for the idea of combining either Knowledge Arcana or Knowledge Religion with Spellcraft, that actually is a much more complicated game mechanic. What if a character multiclasses? What happens then? What about new players? There are new players who get flummoxed by just the 3.5 player's handbook.
I dont see your point of the character deciding to multi-class? What are you trying to point out?
Robert
I have never seen concentration used for non-spellcasting purposes.
The best non-spellcasting use for the Concentration skill I have seen (and the reason I want it to stay a separate skill) is in Mongoose Publishing’s Quintessential Monk. They have a chapter on new uses for skills, and Concentration is used to introduce a great mechanic for ‘body kungs’ (think of all the real world chi-based things the Shaolin monks have been documented performing and you’ve got what I’m talking about).
(As an aside, and expanding on this thought, you could even argue for Rogues having access to the skill - because opening a lock or disabling a trap counts as an action requiring their full attention, especially if combat is going on around them).
Folding Concentration into Spellcraft effectively cuts off access to these other potentially great uses for the skill, because those classes don’t need all the other things that Spellcraft does (and they shouldn’t have them).
I do agree with DracoDruid’s observation that the skill makes more sense if it is tied to Wisdom rather than Constitution. If I had to guess why Constitution was used, I would say it was in order to use a stat that was non-primary for both arcane and divine spellcasters, and therefore favored neither.
With the revised Monk still on the horizon for Alpha 3, I hope the team might consider breaking this skill back out. If not, maybe they can put a mechanic in for the Monk to do these things (perhaps an ability called ‘Discipline’ or ‘Chi Kung’, using the mechanics for the Druid’s Wild Empathy check as a model for a ‘class-exclusive’ extraordinary ability).
Sorry for the ramble folks. I hope there is a good idea in there somewhere.... :)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
As always my 0.02 dinars ....
Keep Spellcraft and Knowledge Arcana as they are right now in Alpha 2 and add a Concentration skill that would be useful to monks, psions and so forth. I'd envision it as being a bit of a focus on tasks despite distractions / meditation / autohypnosis hybrid.
And after that rambling you may return to your usual bat channel.